VILNIUS – A Ukrainian anti-government activist who fled the country after being abducted said on Thursday he had been forced under torture to declare himself an American spy.

Dmytro Bulatov, leader of a protest group known as Automaidan, said his kidnappers forced him to say on camera that he had accepted money from the US Embassy to organize anti-government protests in Ukraine.

“I was telling them lies just to stop the torture… At one point I asked them to kill me because I couldn’t stand it any more,” said the 35-year-old, speaking at the Vilnius University Emergency Hospital in Lithuania where he is being treated after leaving Ukraine on Sunday.

Bulatov, was found bloodied and injured in woods outside Kiev on January 30. He said unidentified assailants had driven nails through his hands in a “crucifixion” and had beaten him during a week in captivity.

EU leaders offered to help the activist after Ukrainian police said they wanted to charge him with taking part in “mass disorder” related to protests consisting of convoys of sometimes hundreds of cars driving up to the homes of allies of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.